The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for using ozone as a disinfectant. More specifically, this invention relates to apparatus and methods for killing harmful bacteria that may be transmitted from health care providers to patients.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 2.4 million hospitalized patients contract an infection every year and that half could be prevented by proper hand washing by health care providers. These infections cause or contribute to 100,000 deaths each year. While medical professionals and staff members follow infection control procedures, it is time consuming to completely clean all skin surfaces when washing hands between patients or before performing a surgical procedure. Most hand cleaners for killing harmful bacteria that can be transmitted to patients are detergent-based products and require several minutes to throughly wash the hands and arms.
Thus, a need remains for a disinfectant which may be used to quickly and conveniently kill harmful bacteria. Ozone is a well known oxidant that destroys bacteria, viruses and other microorganisms on contact. Ozone, or O3, is an allotropic form of oxygen produced from air or other gasses containing oxygen by passage of a stream of such gasses through a high voltage electrical discharge. Contaminants, such as bacteria, which come in contact with ozone are ruptured in a process known as cell lysing. Destruction of the contaminant is almost immediate. This and other benefits of ozone are well known. However, unlike many other disinfecting agents, ozone is used as it is generated, breaks down rapidly and does not leave chemical residues.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a portable ozone generator for use in a medical environment, such as a doctor's office or hospital, for use by health care providers to disinfect their hands and arms between patients.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ozone generator that is self contained and automatically actuated for bathing the hands and forearms (up to the elbow) of a user in ozone for a predetermined period of time sufficient for completely destroying bacteria, viruses or other microorganisms.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an ozone generator which exhausts ozone through an ozone neutralizing fabric for maintaining ozone concentrations in ambient air in the area around the ozone generator within tolerable limits.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an ozone generator which may be manually set for repeated and substantially continuous use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method which utilizes ozone to destroy bacteria, viruses and other harmful microorganisms.